Beautiful Salvation (28 page)

“Aiyana!”

Aiyana whirled to find Saamal standing next to her and her lips parted in shock. “Saamal! Saamal, you’re here!” She tried to go to him, but he looked past her, through her. Aiyana halted, confused and increasingly uneasy. He was staring at her body—the physical body gushing blood—horror etched into every line of his handsome face, pain shining in his beautiful ebony eyes. Like the man with the dagger, Saamal’s features shifted as she watched him, melting from human to jaguar and back. It was as if Aiyana could see all of his faces at once. But none of them gave any indication that they saw her.

The hair on Aiyana’s arms and neck stood up as a skin-tingling surge of energy roared from the body on the bed like a flooded river bursting from its banks. Saamal took a step toward the man holding the dagger, murder glowing in his eyes. The rush of energy hit him full in the chest and he staggered back. As soon as his left leg stepped back, his body tilted wildly. His arms fell out as if to catch himself, but the energy continued to barrel into him and his body tensed and seemed to freeze, mid-fall.
 

A terrified feminine squeak sounded from somewhere across the room. Aiyana half-turned and gritted her teeth as she noticed the serpent woman who’d tried to have her killed standing on the other side of Saamal. As Aiyana watched, she raised her hands, shedding her human form for the body of a giant serpent-woman. Her body swelled and undulated, scales clattering as they spilled over her form. Jade green slitted eyes blinked at Saamal as he stood locked in the flood of power. Before Aiyana could react, Chumana snapped her tail at Saamal, slamming into him with tremendous force. Saamal grunted and his body hurtled across the room and out the window. As the god vanished, she whirled on the man with the dagger.

“You fool!” she screamed. “You killed her with no binding spell in place! Death has his full powers back!”

The man with the dagger shook the blade, flicking off thick droplets of blood, and then drew a handkerchief from his pocket. He cleaned the blade as his human features melted away, revealing Coyote in his true form.

“If I were you, Spring Maiden,” Coyote drawled lazily. “I would run.”

“Bastard,” she hissed.

Aiyana blinked, lost in the insanity going on around her. Chumana screamed again and then slithered from the room like a bolt of lightning dancing across the sky. She was gone in a flash and Coyote smirked after her.

“Women,” he sighed. He replaced his dagger and ran a hand over Aiyana’s hair. “Don’t disappoint me, Aiyana. I’m counting on you to make everything right.” He shook his head as he turned to the secret passageway. “The kingdom hasn’t been any fun since the Jaguar King lost his roar.”

He vanished from the room, leaving Aiyana alone with her thoughts and her own dead body. She groped behind her for a chair, wanting to sit and feeling ridiculous for it. “What is going on?” She stared down at her body, noticing for the first time that she had the same misty consistency as Tenoch. “I’m…a ghost?”

“Yes.”

She whirled to find Tenoch floating beside her as if her thoughts had summoned him. He looked the same as he always did, still wearing the ceremonial garb that he’d been dressed in at the time of his death, his flesh still transparent and pale. Still, he seemed different, more…real. Aiyana blinked at him helplessly, her thoughts a tangled mess. Tenoch’s features softened and he laid a hand on her arm. It was as solid as Saamal’s grip had felt while she was alive, though it lacked the warmth of the living.

“I know this is overwhelming,” Tenoch said gently, “but you must stay calm. I think perhaps your time is not quite up. Come with me.”

Aiyana nodded, too overwhelmed to think of anything to say. Her body was numb and she wasn’t sure if that was a result of shock, or if this was how ghosts always felt. She had the odd thought to ask Tenoch, but dismissed the idea immediately. Now wasn’t the time.

Tenoch pulled at her and they both floated out the window that Saamal had been knocked out of only seconds ago. Aiyana clutched Tenoch’s arm, instinct sending her heart into her throat as she sailed out over nothing. She waited for the plummeting sensation in her stomach, even though part of her knew it wouldn’t come. Tenoch patted her hand, a welcome gesture of comfort, and Aiyana took a deep breath and tried to push away the unsettling new sensations enough to concentrate.

“Look.” Tenoch pointed at something on the ground.

Aiyana blinked, tearing her attention away from her own body to take in her surroundings. It was as if seeing what was happening brought reality crashing back. Sound came roaring back to her, and her senses were suddenly overwhelmed by chaos. Bestial snarling, strange howls and cries, the song of metal singing through the air. The coppery scent of blood surrounded her, whipped around by gusting winds that howled ferociously even though she could barely feel them. Aiyana’s jaw dropped and she blinked at her first view of her kingdom’s existence on the physical plane in over a century.

It was a siege. Monsters straight out of the nightmares of her youth crawled from the forest and lumbered toward the castle. Warriors she’d never seen before met them as they came closer, facing off in deadly battles.

A wendigo roared, a piercing screech that chilled Aiyana’s ghostly blood to ice. Its white fur was speckled with blood and saliva dripped from its jaws, its eternally starving body more bone than flesh. It had the head of a monstrous deer, though the jagged teeth were all predator. Long, bony arms hung down to the ground, ending in three thick digits, each with a claw as wide as Aiyana’s thumbs and as sharp as a falcon’s talon. Vicious antlers protruded from its head, each point gleaming with the blood of past victims. Despite its emaciated appearance, Aiyana knew that the wendigo was powerful, stronger than a bear, driven by an insatiable hunger for blood and flesh. It screamed as it brought a boney, claw-tipped hand swiping down at its enemy.

The warrior that met the wendigo in battle was more beast than man. Though shorter than the lean wendigo with its towering antlers, the warrior’s hulking body with its shoulders as broad as a ceiba tree and its arms as massive as the body of an anaconda was equally intimidating. Brown fur covered its body, and its face ended in a wolfish snout full of sharp white teeth. Glowing golden eyes flashed as it rose up to meet the wendigo’s strike, slashing at the wendigo’s protruding ribs with a monstrous claw-tipped paw. The wendigo screeched, listing backwards as brackish blood gushed from its belly. The wolfman pressed on, snarling and snapping its jaws. It closed a hand around the wendigo’s throat as the beast bent in half over its wounded midsection. Aiyana’s stomach rolled as he tore the head off the neck with one sharp jerk, sending the skull rolling down the hill.

The wolfman didn’t stay to see the body fall. He loped off toward the next wendigo, its movements easy and powerful, its grace belying its bulk.

An agonized scream rent the air and Aiyana diverted her attention to where a shadowy form faced off against a man with skin so pale it nearly glowed. The shadowed form was tall, thin, and seemed to be made of all angles. Aiyana gasped as she noticed the sharp bones jutting out of its elbows like daggers. Glowing orbs caught her attention and she recognized the creature just in time. She tore her gaze away, staring at Tenoch with wide eyes.

“
Itopa'hi
,” she breathed.

“You are a ghost,” Tenoch reminded her. “You can look, no harm will come to you.”

Unable to resist the temptation, Aiyana peered down at the gangly monster, her attention drawn to the back of his head where his second face peered out at the world. It was said that to look upon
Itopa'hi
’s second face was to be paralyzed forever—or until the creature came back to disembowel you with the knife-like protrusions from its elbows. None had ever viewed that second face and lived.

Her stomach turned as she faced every child’s greatest nightmare. The second face was gaunt, drawn, and sickly green. Its eyes rolled around in the sockets, seeking out a victim, always watching. Its gaze passed over her and Aiyana held her breath despite Tenoch’s warning, waiting for the sick sense of paralysis that part of her was certain she would feel. The glassy eyes rolled over her with no effect, moving on as if it couldn’t see her. Aiyana trembled with relief, feeling foolish for being so afraid.

The warrior squaring off against
Itopa'hi
showed no fear. The pale planes of his face remained as smooth and sharp as glass, his eyes glowing a faint crimson as he thrust with his dagger, aiming for
Itopa'hi’s
heart. The creature snarled and jerked back, easily dodging the blade, then returned the warrior’s attack with one of its own. After several more parries and thrusts, the warrior took several larger steps back.

Itopa'hi
laughed, a spine tingling, terrifying sound, mocking the warrior’s retreat. The warrior stood as still as a statue, staring
Itopa'hi
down as her hysterical laughter filled the air. Darkness flowed over his pale flesh until even his glowing eyes were lost to the cloud. The warrior’s clothing fell to the ground in limp folds and Aiyana’s jaw dropped. The black mist surged toward the laughing
Itopa'hi
like a cloud of coal dust, flowing into her mouth and nostrils.
Itopa'hi
choked, her laugher dying as she clutched at her throat, her eyes bulging in her skull. Aiyana raised a hand to her own throat as
Itopa'hi
suffocated, her body twitching as she collapsed to the ground. After several long moments, the dark mist flowed from the body and coalesced once again. The warrior reappeared, the muscled planes of his naked body bared to the moonlight. He redressed as if he had all the time in the world, adjusting his clothes and replacing his weapons. After cleaning his dagger on his cloak, he scanned his surroundings, eyes flashing as they landed on a wendigo that had slipped past the wolfman. His dagger flashed as he darted for the wendigo.

“Vampire,” Tenoch supplied. “Prince of
Dacia
.”

A blast of heat hit them both and Aiyana cried out as fire rushed through her. The sensation wasn’t painful, but it was strange, unsettling. Tenoch put a hand on her arm.

“You are a ghost, Aiyana, the fire will not hurt you.”

“I know it just…feels so odd. I haven’t been dead long.” Not wanting to dwell on her current state, Aiyana searched for the source of the fire and gasped.

It was the man who had stood beside her bed, the one who had been holding the bloody dagger. Or rather, it looked like the man Coyote had been pretending to be. Only, he did not appear exactly the same as he had then. Ebony wings extended from his back like ominous sails, beating the air with powerful bursts of movement that sent him hurtling through the air toward clouds of chittering black shapes. He opened his mouth and blew out, sending another burst of flames at the cloud. The scent of burning hair filled the air and the glow of the fire lit up the demon’s opponent. Aiyana jerked back as she recognized the human heads with bat wings sprouting from either side, eyes sallow and deathlike, sharp teeth dripping with blood. As they screamed, the demon hurled a handful of stones. The rocks glowed like hearth fire embers and the ones that found their mark down the throats of the monsters quickly brought their targets falling out of the sky like dead weights.

“
Kanontsistonties
,” she whispered.

Tenoch nodded. “The Flying Heads. The one who fights them is Adonis, demon prince of Nysa.”

“Another prince?” Before Aiyana could demand more information, the glitter of scales lit up her peripheral vision. Aiyana’s jaw dropped. An angel hovered in the sky mere feet away from the mouth of the giant horned serpent
Uktena
. The massive snake rose higher than the tallest trees in the forest, its scales glistening with patches of slimy algae and hung with seaweed where its scales were jagged and broken. Aiyana imagined she could hear the sound of rushing water as she pictured the beast crawling from its underwater home, venturing onto the land in search of fresh meat. What had happened to bring the monster this far inland? What had drawn it to the palace?

Aiyana abandoned her thoughts as
Uktena’s
forked tongue flicked out, nearly knocking the angel from the air. The angel’s long blond hair waved behind him as he dove toward the ground, spinning around and coming up behind the horned serpent. Metal flashed in the moonlight as the angel raised a massive sword, light dancing over its unornamented blade. The angel aimed for a spot on the back of the serpent’s neck.
Uktena
twisted around, but the angel followed the movement, shooting forward like the well-aimed point of an arrow. The sword slid into the back of the serpent like a spade through moist earth. A great hiss that rattled Aiyana’s organs inside her spewed from the snake’s mouth. Death tremors wracked the serpentine body and it thrashed about on the ground, crushing trees beneath its heavy coils. Its tail came dangerously close to the palace, tangling in the thick circle of briars surrounding the stone. Finally the lifeless body fell to the earth, rattling the very foundation of the castle.